Months ago I happened to make a connection with someone who lived "off the grid" in Canada. Though quite a distance from the nearest enclave of people, he had considerable difficulty communicating with them. Can you imagine living alone, away from everybody, and still having difficulty with people when you finally do run into them? You'd think it would be easy.

Anyway, he had to work in partnership with these people simply because he was out there with them. The answer was simple. I told him to read Marshall Rosenberg's Nonviolent Communication. It answers the question of how to successfully talk to people, individuals or groups.

He was an older man, smart and successful. In other words, he was not suffering from youth challenges :-) Yet, apparently, it never occurred to him to ask the question of how can I successfully work with these people, talk to them in a way that gives me what I need and gives all of us peace.

And all of us can get that way. When we're facing a problem, we're so involved in it, we forget to start to look for a solution. Yet the fastest way out of a difficulty is to instantly start to look for a solution. Research, talk to people, go to the library, take a class . . . just look. The simple desire to know will bring you the answers one way or another.

As I said, I suggested Nonviolent Communication and was surprised to receive sincere gratitude from him; it answered his need. Hurrah!

Let's remember to look for solutions; there always are solutions to every problem, every challenge.